50. Which supposition is of no use. For, let us consider, when we
affirm that "all gold is fixed," either it means that fixedness is a
part of the definition, i.e., part of the nominal essence the word
gold stands for; and so this affirmation, "all gold is fixed,"
contains nothing but the signification of the term gold. Or else it
means, that fixedness, not being a part of the definition of the gold,
is a property of that substance itself: in which case it is plain that
the word gold stands in the place of a substance, having the real
essence of a species of things made by nature. In which way of
substitution it has so confused and uncertain a signification, that,
though this proposition- "gold is fixed"- be in that sense an
affirmation of something real; yet it is a truth will always fail us
in its particular application, and so is of no real use or
certainty. For let it be ever so true, that all gold, i.e. all that
has the real essence of gold, is fixed, what serves this for, whilst
we know not, in this sense, what is or is not gold? For if we know not
the real essence of gold, it is impossible we should know what
parcel of matter has that essence, and so whether it be true gold or
no.
51. Conclusion. To conclude: what liberty Adam had at first to
make any complex ideas of mixed modes by no other pattern but by his
own thoughts, the same have all men ever since had.
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